When New England recovering from the huge snowstorm that hit less than two weeks ago, I’d thought I’d look at Storm of the Century which Stephen King wrote specifically for TV. Set in February 1989, it aired as a three-part miniseries in the middle of February 1999.
Now, Stephen King adaptations are mostly hit or miss. But his work on TV has been less than stellar. There was the mediocre series Golden Years which came and went during the summer of 1991, it’s mostly forgotten. The Stand was a good adaptation at the time back in 1994 but Mick Garris has never been the best director of any material. King and Garris have had collaborations for years but their output leaves a lot to be desired such as the 1997 miniseries adaptation of The Shining which King wanted to keep closer to his niovel.
And it’s also mostly forgotten.
Storm of the Century, a three-part miniseries a original concept by King. It is set on the fictional Little Tall Island off the Maine coast as a strong blizzard hits. Just before the storm makes landfall, an elderly woman is murdered in her home by a menacing individual Andre Lionge (Colm Feore). He is eventually arrested by Mike Anderson (Tim Daly), who owns the local supermarket and doubles as the island constable. Lionge seems to know the names of the people on the island even though they’ve never met him and he knows dark secrets they’ve tried to hide especially in regards to the town manager, Robbie Seals (Jeffrey DeMunn).
Mike and his co-worker, Alton “Hatch” Hatcher (Casey Siemaszko), can’t find much information on Lionge who says “Give me what I want and I’ll go away.” People seem to find this same thing written as more bodies are found as Lionge possesses the minds of a few townspeople forcing them to kill themselves as he sits in the jail cell.
The rest of the townspeople go to the town hall where a shelter has been set up with help by Mike’s wife, Molly (Deborah Farentino) and another woman, Katrina “Kat” Withers (Julianne Nicholson). The following of the posts includes some spoilers!
Eventually, Mike, who is well versed in Biblical stories, deduces this may have something to do with Legion, where Jesus cast out demons from a man into a herd of pigs. He notices that Lionge is an anagram of Legion. Lionge is actually an evil sorcerer who has lived thousands of years but his time is almost up. He wants to have a child who he can raise as his own. Lionge has been able to put the eight younger children under a spell where their bodies are in a deep sleep.
At a town meeting, he tells them he will kill all the children including Mike and Molly’s son, Ralphie (Dyllan Christopher), if they don’t make the choice to let him have one of the children. Also, the rest of the townspeople will be put under a spell where they’ll be led into the frigid waters to their deaths. Lionge tells them this is the same fate that befell on the people of the Roanoke Colony (even though historians think the colonists were mostly killed by the Indigenous people and/or had to leave because of the elements).
As the townspeople discuss what to do, Mike is the only one who doesn’t think they should turn over one of the children to Lionge. However, both Hatch and Molly, as well as others feel giving Lionge one child will save everyone. The miniseries soon becomes a morality play bringing up elements of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and The Twilight Zone’s “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” as well as the Biblical story of Solomon and the two women fighting over a baby.
The child Lionge takes will go on to live but the parents will never see them again. And you can pretty much guess where the story is heading. At a cumulative run time of about 250 minutes, you can easily cut out 50 minutes and still have a good story. King is building everything up. And unlike his others problematic miniseries such as Rose Red, the characters seem like real people.
It helps that Daly, Farentino and DeMunn take their roles seriously and don’t just seem to be overacting or just reading their lines like other King adaptations. Craig R. Baxley, who directs, is a good step up from Garris. While he’s mostly directed TV shows and action movies, he knows how to get the story going. Some of the acting isn’t the best as some of the actors’ thick New England accents seem fake.
This is mostly Feore’s moment to shine as a villain who may not be as bad as the people he is terrorizing. This is the type of role other actors might overact or chew scenery as they mug for the camera. But Feore is menacing as he knows he’s gotten absolute power over the island people.
People who were fans of the original HBO run of Fraggle Rock will notice Gerard Parkes as one of the elder townspeople. A young Spencer Breslin plays one of the children whose fate is in the hands of the people. This would also be one of the many productions of King’s work to feature DeMunn. He had previously appeared as the prosecutor in The Shawshank Redemption. He would also have more crucial roles in The Green Mile and The Mist, which has a similar theme of people turning on each other when threatened.
The miniseries received a lot of critical acclaim as well as good viewership. Mike Flanagan, who has gone on to adapt King’s works into acclaimed movies, said he used the miniseries as inspiration for his series Midnight Mass. And King has said it’s his personal favorite TV production.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 